Berislav and Romana Brestovec make lavender soaps, lip balms, creams.
A few years ago, Berislav Brestovec knew nothing about agriculture, which was not really unusual for a guy who grew up in Zagreb. No one in his family was ever in the agriculture business. However, his wife Romana, an economist by profession, is originally from the Marija Gorica area, so they built a cottage and often spent time there to get away from all the city noise. Then, five years ago, Romana inherited some land, reports agrobiz.hr on July 18, 2016.
“And the rest is history”, says Berislav while sitting down in the garden in front of the house. On the ground floor of the house they have created a facility for processing lavender and making fragranced soaps, lip balms, creams, bath salts, teas and so on. All these products are one hundred percent handmade. They sell them under the brand Modri Bregi (Blue Hills). They contain no preservatives or additives.
“We wanted to plant an orchard, but we realized that we cannot get into such a big investment”, explains Berislav. Romana adds that he sold his apartment in Zagreb to be able to invest in the lavender business. However, they also had to take a loan.
They had many ups and downs, they admit, but kept encouraging each other. In the end, all the love and efforts paid off and their dedication to product quality was recognized by the customers. In addition to Croatia, they also market their products in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and they are also talking to some potential partners in Finland.
After they pick up the stems of lavender flowers using reaping hooks, Berislav loads the plants into their van and takes them to a distillery near Karlovac. They have ten litres of essential lavender oil, 100 kilograms of dried flowers, 3000 bouquets of lavender, and 4,000 seedlings that they produced themselves. If their plans do come true, they will have their own distillery and expand their business to tourism.
For now, the products of the Brestovec family can be found in the Kantarion store in Zagreb, Manufaktura in Opatija and in a herbal pharmacy in Split.
